I Don’t Understand

How can anyone oppose figuring out a way to insure 30,000,000 neighbors? Thirty million. 30 times all the people that live in the Capital Region! Thats five times more people than there are acres in the Adirondack Preserve, the largest state forest in America.

Is the Healthcare bill perfect? Hell no. But things I want other people do not. Its a compromise built on our history, our capacity to change and on the power to influence.

But it insures 30 million people currently uninsured. It says that healthcare is possible for self-employed, young, poor, and middle class families.

12 Responses

I’m curious how we can afford not to? Many folks are now adding to the growing poor population because of being uninsured. I fear we are growing numb to the never ending number of stories of people losing everything due to be uninsured or under-insured.

Due to a variety of circumstances I’ve found myself uninsured at many points in my life. And, I will tell you there is little else more stressful than feeling like if you trip during your daily jog you might lose everything you have. Or if you go one more year with out an annual check-up the next time you go you might have a terminal illness that could have had a different outcome if you were insured.

The only reason I see for not supporting this bill is a lack of compassion and empathy. I think it would do us all a lot of good to think for one second how scary life would be knowing you could lose everything including your life because of something as essential as insurance.

Ahh, were it that simple. It’s all the other garbage (partial list of examples: giveaways to powerful Senators in faraway states, cuts in the Medicare safety net for the elderly, mandating the purchasing of insurance and literally criminalizing people who don’t buy it—that last one is quite a giveaway to large insurance companies who win either way; whether or not this monstrosity is passed—government subsidation of insurance rates which comes directly out of the pockets of us, the taxpayers).

A Medicare for all, single payor system of insurance would cover all uninsured and not perpetuate the expensive, cumbersome, confusing status quo which builds in escalating administrative costs and cuts deeply into the income of health providers. Congress and the President lack the intestinal fortitude to make that simple solution happen.

All those people who are sycophants of Beck and Limbaugh all seem to agree that having the government take our hard-earned money to give it to other people is socialism. They all say that it will ruin our country, that we can all kiss freedom goodbye.

Yet they seem to see absolutely no problem with wealthy corporations spending their money on lobbyists to rig the systems to their advantage so that they can take our hard-earned money simply because they can. Even if that means removing laws and regulations that were put in place to ensure fairness and personal safety. Because that’s capitalism, and that’s the American way. They’re all oblivious to the possibility that removing checks and balances against unbridled corporate power puts their livelihoods and their lives in danger. They don’t want Big Brother watching them, but they don’t realize how much worse Big Daddy is.

This health bill is just another way for our President to achieve his Dependency agenda and wealth redistribution. There is more to this bill than meets the eye. We are losing are privileges as Americans. What happen to the Freedom of Choice?

John- How does improved access to healthcare equal wealth distribution? What privilege are you losing? The privilege of being insured while others cannot afford health insurance or preventive care.

We are paying for the uninsured in many ways. Lack of health insurance and affordable preventive medical care leads to increased expenses in the long term. Our emergency rooms are filled with individuals who could be served by primary doctors IF they had health insurance or could afford to go. Any of us who pay out of pocket for a doctor’s visit pay significantly more than an insurer will pay for the exact same service. Health reform is necessary.

The fact of the matter is that money has moved radically to the top of the list since Reagan instituted trickle-down.

The lowest 10% of wage earners, since the Reagan years, have seen a net increase in income of roughly $2300. The middle 80% have actually seen a decrease of somewhere around $300, I believe it’s $283. The top 10% have seen an INCREASE of 104%, or approximately 1.1 million dollars.

These numbers are approximate and two or three years old. However, the point being that for the last 30 years or so, the money has been moving in one direction. The President is simply trying to move some of it back.

You can agree with his reasoning or not. However, what he’s doing isn’t socialism or evil. People are starving, literally. The GOP isn’t trying to do anything about it. I suppose it could be argued neither are the Dems…

However, trying to cover an additional 30 million people is a no brainer…sorry if you’ll have to drive the Mercedes an extra year.

You know Mr Koppel you are a very stupid person. It is the top tier that own the companies that employ the people at all other levels. It is also this group of people who do more for charity than any other group. How much have you yourself given to charity in the last month?
It is the wives of these executives, CEO’s, CFO’s that chair all the major fundraising for all the major charities world-wide. When was the last time you put on an Annual Ball and raised 4.5 million for Aids? Haiti? Heart Disease? St Jude?
God bless them…and why should they pay more than their fair share??? Why do the Congressmen and the President receive one pay hike after another, and at the same time enjoy along with their staff members free trips to the Climate talks while staying in 5 star hotels?? Why aren’t they having to adopt the same exact universal health care as we will have to?? Leave the rich alone or mark my words there will be an uprising in this country , the likes of which we have never seen before! After awhile it just gets old…the “working class” men and women is all I hear the Dems say yadda yadda yadda as if the rich got where they are by “magic” and did not somehow “work”. How would you like to sacrifice vacations and weekends too because you are growing a company into a public one with the hopes of employing 50,000 more people. How would you like to work every night of the week (and most weekends too) until 9 and 10 o’clock, then get up at 5AM and be reading the Wall Street Journal by 6AM in your office? THAT is what these people do to create jobs for people like you. Do you work by the way? FLAT tax and MORE paying it THAT is fair! Immigrants out of the country and the children out of the schools until papers are legal. EVERYONE paying even if just a little..that is the American way, we should ALL be sharing the burden and not shoving it onto the shoulders of others.

Ms. Hamilton,
Its the name calling like yours to call someone stupid, and attack them that is why the teaparty people turn me off…

But getting back to you– whats with that comment “people like you”? Sounds awfully bigoted to me. You dont even know the first thing about Mr. Koppell, yet you assume he doesnt give to charity and he doesnt work????

I am sure Mr. Koppell wont bother to redpond to your inflammatory response but it happens I do know him from our house of worship, and I can tell you he (and his wife) work, and work hard to raise their children.

While its none of my business or yours if he gives to charity, I can tell you that he and his family got down and dirty cooking and delivering hundreds of meals on Christmas day to the elderly and people with AIDS. Its not all about writing a check for $1000 and putting on a ballgown.

Please turn up the civility. You will find that people will be more apt to listen to what you have to say.

What is it that I said that insulted you so? All I did was put some financial information out there. As I said they are approximate and a few years old, but they served to make the point.

My wife and I give to charity, regularly. We give to multiple agencies, both private and public. We spent a Sunday a month working at the Northeast Regional Food Bank for about seven or eight years. My wife is a personal shopper for Albany Senior Services, spending several hours a week shopping for and visiting with a senior who lives alone. What do you do?

I have been working my 40 hours a week since 1983. I pay my taxes as well as ever increasing health insurance premiums.

I’m really unconcerned with what the wives do. I’m pretty confident they aren’t writing invitations, licking stamps or dicing onions though for these charity events.

I never asked them to pay more than thier fair share. Just thier fair share. Actually, if you go back and read my post, I didn’t ask them to pay anything. I was just supporting the healthcare bill. The cost of which will be approximatly $3200 over 10 years per US citizen.

Is that to much to ask? Are you unable to find $320/year over ten years to insure 32 million of your fellow citizens, a huge percentage of whom are children?

I agree, why do the legislators of our country continue to enjoy yearly raises and the best healthcare in the world at no cost to themselves. As I didn’t address either of these issues in my post, I’m not sure why you vomited that on me.

I commend entrepreneurs. However, not all ceo’s and cfo’s are entrepreneurs. I’d speculate that most of the people running companies that employ 50,000 or more employees are, in fact, not entrepreneurs at all. They are appointed to run publically held corporations.

I’m really not sure what I said that ticked you off so much. Perhaps it was the Mercedes comment. If that’s what it was, I apologize.